People are often offended, insulted, abused and misinterpreted. How can we make this world a better place if we are always getting it wrong? How can we be positive if everyone around us is angry and negative?
I, like many of us at times are hurt and disappointed in the way people deal with other people. Where has the common courtesy and once friendly world gone to? Have we buried our manners? Like a world with endangered species are we in danger of losing our good behaviour? Or is this total abandonment an act of carelessness?
A few months ago I went shopping on this particular day a man decided that I had too much shopping, he said, "I hope you don't mind but I really only have one thing and you have many." He pushed right in front of me and without the opportunity for me to reply.
Should I have been offended at all? Should he have waited in line for his turn? Was he in a hurry? What possibly could have prompted this rude person to dispose of his courteous ways?
Do we blame his parents? Are they at all responsible? Or are humans just selectively forgetful? Shouldn't we all have an equal level of respect and human protocol and don't we have the right not to be disrespected? So many questions I was thinking for the man who had pushed in. I replied on my own accord, "Yeah sure." But I was NOT okay.
I silently abused this man who was rude to me. The filthy unvoiced language of abuse about this man is just not shareable. Instead of assuming that I would say yes, what if he had said, "Excuse me, would you mind if I went before you as I only have one thing and I would really appreciate it?"
Later on I had saw him at a local coffee shop nearby sippin' away and laughin' up a storm. Good on ya, I thought to myself, what a bloody loser. Oh my goodness, I pulled the car over, covered my face with my hands and was ashamed that I had felt this way about this man. Why was I so angry with him? Honestly, what was my problem?
I mean, that's the thing about humankind. We can only take so much crap from people and then we break. Is there another way? Someone once said to me, "Have you ever thought why people are angry? Most times it's not at you."
I interrupted, "Well it sounds like it."
He replied, "Some people need help or advice and if they don't get it they are usually angry at the fact that they can't be helped right now, learn to listen and you will truly find their real problem."
I tend to agree with my friend. I gave it much thought over the years in all types of situations. For instance, when the kids bugged me they weren't really bugging me because they were being naughty. They needed something, my attention, my love, my advice. When my friend rang asking for money, I realised she was a gambler and that she was facing a larger problem in life than being broke. When my sister became silent and unapproachable, I learned she was being physically abused by her boyfriend and it was not that she didn't want to talk to me. He said she couldn't.
I finally realised after all these years that I was insensitive. I was silently rude and how my behaviour had become unacceptable. I vowed to change my ways and my thinking. I found my good manners and I remembered how to use them.
This made me so happy and I felt that I could be a better contributor to the world and be a better role model to my children and now that maybe others could see the good in me. It brings tears to my eyes when I hear of good things in the world, because if only everyone felt like that, they would see that GOOD is amongst us in all shapes and forms.
From that day on I became a powerful individual because of my choice to be happier. When the man stole my parking spot I blessed him. When the women nudged me with her trolley for walking too slow I smiled at her. There was even the time when the man who had pushed in, he did it again and again but I remained well mannered.
Often people just miss the point or they just don't get it. Is this humankind's problem?
If you find your manners you be sure to use them, please. A world richer in good manners and common courtesy is a world better than money and ignorance!
